“Solving our mother’s case after all these years would mean the world to me in terms of achieving some emotional closure around her murder,” he said yesterday.

“In Mum’s case, although 30 years sounds like a long time, it is conceivable that the perpetrator was in their 20s or 30s at the time, which would mean they are in their 50s or 60s now.

“There is no reason why they shouldn’t be pursued and held accountable.

“In fact, I think that the passage of time in this case can work in our favour.

“I don’t believe that this person acted alone and even if they did, they are likely to have shared this secret with someone over the years.

“Somebody out there has information on who committed this crime and we ask them to clear their own conscience and come forward.”

His brother Craig, who was 19 when his mother was murdered, yesterday said he hoped the reward and new evidence would lead to an arrest.

“It would bring closure for me. I could get on with my life and not be preoccupied with trying to find out who the killer was,” he said.

The homicide squad detective who started reinvestigating the unsolved murder in 2010 told the Herald Sun a comprehensive brief of evidence had been prepared.

“We just need a name to go on it,” detective leading senior constable Kyle Simpson said.

“$500,000 is a significant amount of money and to the right person it would be a life changing amount of money.

“I would be surprised if the person who murdered Nanette Ellis hadn’t discussed it, or mentioned it, or made some offhand remark about the case to somebody at some stage.

“Hopefully the posting of the reward will prompt that somebody to come forward with the information we need.”

Sen-Det Simpson said neither the original homicide squad probe in 1984 nor his recent review of the case had been able to establish a motive for the murder or come up with any suspects that hadn’t been eliminated.

Mrs Ellis worked as an advertising manager for the Leader group of newspapers, based at the Free Press office in Belgrave, at the time of her death.

In the days before she was killed her car was subjected to several rock-throwing and vandalism attacks, both at her home and on her drive to work.

Police have been unable to establish if any of the incidents were connected to her murder.

Ms Ellis was scared enough at the time of her murder to have stashed weapons by the front door for several days before she was attacked.

Sadly, she never got the chance to use the gun and rounders bat to defend herself.

Forensic evidence suggests her killer surprised her from behind, stabbing her in the neck outside her bedroom door.

Ms Ellis bravely fought back and tried to escape by running through the house towards the back door.

The fact the knife cut through her vocal cords meant she was unable to scream for help or alert neighbours as her killer chased her.

Another of several knife wounds inflicted during the ferocious and frenzied attack severed Ms Ellis’s jugular vein.

She bled to death sprawled on her back on the rear patio of the home she shared with her two teenage sons.

The reason Ms Ellis was so scared in the days leading up to her murder was she and her car had been subjected to a serious of incidents between January 31 and February 6, 1984.

Rocks were thrown at her car on successive days as she drove from home to her Belgrave office.

The car’s windscreen was smashed on two occasions and another rock burst her radiator on a third day.

Her yellow Toyota Corolla sedan was also subjected to a series of vandalism attacks in the driveway where paint was tipped over it, the tyres were slashed and the radio aerial and numberplates removed.

The attacks were reported to police, who ended up offering to follow Ms Ellis on her drive to work each day in the hope of catching the offender red-handed. They also had patrol cars drive past her home at different times of the day and night.

Police had escorted her to work on the Friday she was murdered and were due to escort her again the following Monday.

Friends had also been staying with her at night following the vandalism incidents.

The last attack on her car was in the driveway of her home on Monday, February 6, four days before she was murdered.

By the Friday of that week Ms Ellis was beginning to think whoever was doing it had stopped and a few girlfriends were taking her out for a meal that night to take her mind off what appeared to be a vendetta against her.

Her car was seen pulling into her driveway about 5.15pm and her son Greg discovered her body shortly after 6pm.

Mr Ellis was attacked while wearing the clothes she had on at work that day, which suggests she was killed within minutes of arriving home as she had intended getting changed to go out with her friends and didn’t have much time to do so.

When her body was found her belt was undone, as was the top button of her jeans and the zip was pulled down, which suggests she was attacked as she was preparing to get changed.

Other than that, her clothing wasn’t disturbed and there was no evidence she was sexually assaulted.

Her son Greg, then aged 16, left the house about 30 minutes before his mother got home. His brother Craig left shortly afterwards, also before his mother got home.

Ms Ellis had various items in her car to carry into the house when she arrived home from work about 5.15pm, requiring at least two and probably three trips.

Police presume she went backwards and forwards between her car and the house without shutting the door, so somebody could easily have followed her in. There was no forced entry.

Greg Ellis watched television at a friend’s nearby house before coming home just after 6pm to find the front door was unlocked.

“I then went into the kitchen to see what we were having for tea, to see if Mum had started anything,” he told police soon after the murder.

“Nothing appeared to be ready. I then walked down the hallway. I noticed there was blood on the carpet and the wall that was opposite Mum’s bedroom door.

“I walked into Mum’s room. I noticed the radio on. It was pretty loud, which was normal because Mum was a bit deaf in one ear.

“I turned around then walked back down the passageway. I saw that the blood led into the laundry.

“I then walked into the laundry. I noticed the back door from the laundry to the back porch was open and I could see Mum lying on the porch.

“Her eyes were open and she seemed like she was still. I thought she must have been dead.

“I sort of froze on seeing this. I then let out a loud scream.

“I then went running back out of the house through the front door as fast as I could.

“As I ran down the footpath to the Hutchinson’s place, I remember I was hysterical and mumbling.

“I then went into the Hutchinsons. They were all watching television. I told Mr Hutchinson that something had happened to my Mum and for him to come quickly.

“All the Hutchinsons came back to my place. I told Mr Hutchinson that Mum was out on the back veranda. I told the others not to go in as it was not a pretty sight.

“Mr Hutchinson then came back and told me to come in and ring the police.

“I rang D24 on 11444 on the phone in the kitchen. I told them there was an emergency and that someone had been injured. I then handed the phone to Mr Hutchinson, who gave them further details.

“Mr Hutchinson told me Mum was cold and that he couldn’t find a pulse.”

Greg was outside in the driveway waiting for the police and ambulance to arrive when his brother Craig drove up in his car.

Craig Ellis remembers that day like it was yesterday.

He recently told the Herald Sun he had driven to Montrose to see some friends to show off the old Holden he had renovated, leaving home about 30 minutes before his mother arrived from work.

“When I got home there was my brother in the driveway with the neighbour, Mr Hutchinson, both crying and Ron Hutchinson with his arm around Greg,” Craig Ellis said.

“I said ‘what happened?’ and he said ‘it’s your Mum, it’s your Mum’ and I asked what had happened and where was she.

“He said she was out the back but that it was too late saying ‘she’s cold, she’s dead’.

“I went to go round the back and he grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go around the back.

“I sort of pulled away from him and got back into my car and sped away to my friend’s place in Bayswater and told them what had happened.

“They then rang the house and the police were there by that time and they sort of said to come back.

“I went back and there were police everywhere. I think my father was there by this time, my stepmother and other people.

“It was just an absolute nightmare.

“I remember going back into the house. I needed to get something and I was told that she wasn’t there anymore.

“I was led in through the back and told not to open my eyes until they told me to.

“And I did, of course, open my eyes and there was a lot of blood.

“It’s funny, but when I talk about it it doesn’t feel like 30 years ago.

“I feel like it happened recently, I know it hasn’t, but psychologically I can feel myself back in that time.”

Homicide squad detective Jack Jacobs got the call about the murder at 6.45pm and arrived at the Ellis house soon afterwards.

He and his crew worked the next 22 days on it without a break, sometimes for more than 24 hours at a stretch.

As is standard police practice, those closest to the victim — Ms Ellis’s former husband Max, who she had been separated from for eight years, and her two sons, Craig and Greg — had to be looked at as possible suspects.

All were quickly ruled out.

Mr Jacobs, long since retired from the force, recently told the Herald Sun the Ellis murder was an unusual and frustrating one because no motive had been established and anybody who was even close to being considered a suspect had been eliminated.

“There was nothing there, after all the interviews and investigations, that I could use to categorise it as perhaps being a burglary gone wrong, or a domestic dispute, or a fall out with a friend or just an impromptu person with a mental defect or something,” he said

“It’s possible there was a frustrated suitor who she hadn’t mentioned, who couldn’t stand rejection.

“Maybe the frustration got too much for him.”

In his evidence at the inquest, the then Det-Sen-Sgt Jacobs said it appeared Ms Ellis was attacked very soon after arriving home, probably as she was starting to undress to get changed to go out.

He also revealed during the inquest that the rock-throwing and vandalism incidents Ms Ellis had suffered were not isolated cases.

“The zipper on the fly of the jeans Ms Ellis was wearing was undone and the belt around her waist was undone,” he told coroner Hugh Adams in 1985.

“Ms Ellis’s blouse was still tucked in her jeans and it appeared completely undisturbed, giving the appearance as if she was about to get changed or had loosened her jeans as she arrived home.

“Although Ms Ellis suffered damage to her motor car in Monbulk Rd, Tecoma, from January 31, 1984 and February 3, 1984, these were not isolated to her alone.

“My investigations have revealed that prior to, during and after the time that Ms Ellis had these incidents occur to her motor car, numerous other incidents occurred at the same location, and nearby, where other motor cars of various colours and brands were hit by stones and damaged.

“None of the incidents had been reported to police. They came up as a result of my canvassing the press.

“Also, investigations have revealed that Ms Ellis’s car was not the only motor car in Boronia and the surrounding area to have paint tipped on it and received other damage, such as punctured tyres and broken aerials.

“These forms of damage also occurred before, during and after the period they were occurring to Ms Ellis’s motor car and occurred to motor cars of various colours and brands.

“Investigators have a complete open mind as to whether the Monbulk Rd incidents and/or the Manuka Drive incidents are related to each other and/or to the death of Ms Ellis.”

Homicide squad detective leading senior constable Kyle Simpson was given the job of reviewing the Ellis murder in 2010 and is still probing the case.

Sen-Det Simpson yesterday praised the work of Jack Jacobs and his crew during the original investigation.

He said they had chased every lead, had prepared a comprehensive brief of evidence and had seized and stored all relevant exhibits.

Sen-Det Simpson has reviewed all that evidence, contacted witnesses, updated the work of the original investigation and obtained new evidence.

For operational reasons, he is not able to provide details of the new information uncovered during the ongoing review of the case.

But Sen-Det Simpson said it was an important breakthrough which may lead to a conviction over the murder of Ms Ellis.

He said the new information could provide vital corroborating evidence if the $500,000 reward flushes out any suspects.

“$500,000 is a significant amount of money and to the right person it would be a life changing amount of money,” Sen-Det Simpson said.

“I would be surprised if the person who murdered Nanette Ellis hadn’t discussed it, or mentioned it, or made some offhand remark about the case to somebody at some stage.

“Hopefully the posting of the reward will prompt that somebody to come forward with the information we need.”

Sen-Det Simpson said his review of the case had come to the same conclusion as the original homicide squad probe, that the reason for the murder couldn’t be established.

“The motive for this is still obscure,” he said.

“We spent a long time looking at Nanette Ellis as a person, separate to the crime.

“So rather than wholly and solely focus on the crime, we spent a lot of time looking at the victimology. Who she was. What she was. What she did when she went out. Who she associated with.

“The best way to describe her would be as an ordinary suburban single mum.

“She didn’t engage in any high risk behaviour that we could identify.

“She wasn’t associating with known criminals. She wasn’t taking drugs. She wasn’t gambling, she didn’t owe large amounts of money. She maintained a fairly normal existence.

“So we didn’t really gain any great insight into the crime from looking at her so we had to go back to look at the crime itself.

“And, unfortunately, much the same thing. That didn’t give us any real insight into motive, which made it very hard to identify a suspect.”

Sen-Det Simpson said he spent a lot of time trying to establish if there was a link between the rock throwing and vandalism and the murder and came to the conclusion it was impossible to say if any of them were or were not connected.

Ms Ellis’s sons Craig, now 49, and Greg, now 46, are full of praise for Victoria Police for putting so much effort into trying to find their mother’s killer so long after it happened.

“As a family we are really very grateful to the Victoria Police for reopening our Mum’s case three years ago, and to the generous reward offered by the State,” Greg Ellis told the Herald Sun.

“The police have been keeping us informed to the extent possible with regards to progress made, and next steps to follow.

“It is also important as a community that we don’t forget victims of senseless crimes, and that we continue to seek justice on their behalf.

“In Mum’s case, although 30 years sounds like a long time, it is conceivable that the perpetrator was in their 20s or 30s at the time, which would mean they are in their 50s or 60s now.

“There is no reason why they shouldn’t be pursued and held accountable.

“In fact, I think that the passage of time in this case can work in our favour.

“I don’t believe that this person acted alone, and even if they did, they are likely to have shared this secret with someone over the years.

“Somebody out there has information on who committed this crime and we ask them to clear their own conscience and come forward.

“It disappoints me that it may take the reward to motivate someone sufficiently to forward that information to the police, but we live in a very self-centred, materialistic world and that is unfortunately the reality.

“Solving our mother’s case after all these years would mean the world to me in terms of achieving some emotional closure around her murder, which left the family very traumatised and with many questions as to why someone felt the need to take her life in such a violent manner.

“I think we have a right to know why this happened, and to have someone held accountable.

“I don’t spend a lot of time speculating about this, but my gut tells me it was probably someone who was attracted to her, or was jealous of her, or that she unintentionally offended in some way.

“She was a very attractive lady and I can’t help thinking that this was in some way connected to the motive behind her murder.

“There are differing opinions on this, but I tend to think that all the incidents leading up to Mum’s death were connected.

“Her car was damaged several times while on commute to work, and again on separate occasions in the driveway of our home. And then our house itself was trespassed and our mother’s life taken in very violent and frenzied way.

“For the attacks on her car to be unrelated to her death would seem to me unlikely.

“I think it is more than likely that Mum knew the offender, or at least the offender has acted on behalf of someone who Mum knew.

“I understand that Mum was pursued in the house and stabbed multiple times as she was fleeing her attacker, so the offender has acted in a frenzy with the intent of murdering her.

“Mum had no enemies that I knew of, had no debts apart from the home loan that she used to buy our home when we moved to Boronia, was a light social drinker, never took any kinds of illegal drugs, and pretty much kept to herself.

“The only thing I can possibly think of is that the offender was mentally unhealthy and had a fatal attraction on Mum. I don’t think these are the actions of a sane individual.

“Finding my Mum’s body was, as you can imagine, a very traumatic experience, and something that changed my life forever.

“If I recall correct, I was not offered any support or counselling at the time by the police or any victim support organisation. Perhaps there wasn’t one.

“The only counselling I had at the time was by a clinical psychologist, Ian Joblin, which was self-funded, and was very helpful in helping me deal with my emotions. “Mum was a very affectionate person to her sons, and a good mother, and I should have lots of fond memories to recall of my childhood and our times together, and be able share these with my own children.

“The reality though is that the circumstances around her death mean that any memories of her are of the time that she was taken from us, the stalking and terrorist-like incidents on her car and the day I found her after the attack in our home.

“I have pretty severe mood swings and issues with self-confidence and self-esteem, which might be partly a result of the trauma I experienced at the time, and have perhaps had an over reliance on alcohol to help me cope with my emotional swings.

“I am hoping that finding the person responsible for her death will help heal this emotional scarring and enable me to make some sense of an absurd and terrifying experience.”

Craig Ellis, Greg’s older brother, said it would mean the world to him for the $500,000 reward tactic to be successful in identifying the killer.

“It would bring closure for me. I could get on with my life and not be preoccupied with trying to find out who the killer was,” he recently told the Herald Sun.

“It would really free the family.

“I just feel that we have been so robbed of having a grandmother and a mother and an aunt and all these things she was or would have been to people.

“My kids don’t have a grandmother. I don’t have a mother to talk to now. It’s been a handicap. It’s something I have had to keep to myself. I tell some people but not others.”

Craig said he still thinks about the murder and who might have done it.

“Different things run through my head. I have thought she was such an attractive woman did someone purely do it because they were that jealous of her, obviously insane,” he said.

“Or that this person has made an advance to her and she has cut them off and they haven’t liked it.

“Who knows if it was intended to be a sexual attack and she fought them off and subsequently they stabbed her.

“Even though it didn’t eventuate, who knows if that may have been a definitive factor in the attack.”

Craig said it had also crossed his mind that the killer might be someone his mother knew and that possibly he and others in the family also knew.

“If that turns out to be the case that would be horrendous,” he said.

“I think all our family think what if we know them, how are we going to feel?

“What if we have been in touch with them still, what if they are a friend in a continuing relationship with us and all along they have been the murderer?

“”That would be hard to take.”

Neither Craig nor Greg Ellis knew it at the time, but the police investigation discovered a long-held Ellis family secret — that they had an older half-sister.

Ms Ellis fell pregnant to her childhood sweetheart at the age of 17 and gave birth to a daughter when she was 18.

The birth was hushed up in the family and Ms Ellis was forced to adopt her daughter out.

It wasn’t until five years after Ms Ellis was murdered that her mother told Craig and Greg about their half-sister, Janet O’Donnell.

Craig tracked Ms O’Donnell down in 1989. The shock of discovering who her mother was, that her mother had been murdered and that she had two half-brothers, proved too great for her to maintain contact at the time.

But Ms O’Donnell re-established contact last year and is now extremely close to Craig and Greg.

“Craig told me of Nanette’s murder and I met Craig and Greg and extended family. I was totally overwhelmed by the news, devastated because I actually grew up literally a few suburbs away.” Ms O’Donnell recently told the Herald Sun.

“I had a complicated childhood, with lots of emotional deprivation, with a very cold mother, and an older brother who was my tormentor.

“I was told I was adopted at a young age, but they kept any information from me, even though the family doctor who arranged the adoption knew who my mother was.

“Meeting Craig and Greg in 1989 was bittersweet.

“My life was pretty chaotic. I did not have any family life, as my father had died when I was 17 and my mother was in a nursing home with dementia.

“I couldn’t handle any integration with my biological family then.

“In 2013, I was watching media on forced adoptions in the 1950s and 70s.

“I Googled Nanette Ellis again, as I used to do from time to time.

“A lot of information came back to me regarding the cold case reopening. From there I searched and talked to Victoria Police detective Kyle Simpson and then made contact with Greg and Craig.

“I spent two weeks in early 2013 in Melbourne reuniting with all my family. It was life changing. I have been welcomed and the connection has been amazing.”

Ms O’Donnell said she had thought a lot about the circumstances of her mother’s murder.

“To me, it seems like a crime of passion, especially when she was stalked prior,” she said.

“She was such a beautiful woman, and I believe she may have put her romantic life on hold as she was a dedicated single mother to her two boys.

“I think whoever did this must have been obsessed with her. Maybe a jilted lover or admirer. This is just a theory of course. I really have no idea.”

Ms O’Donnell said she hoped the new $500,000 reward would finally solve the mystery of who killed her mother.

“It would be life changing. Especially for Greg and Craig, they have lived the nightmare on such a different level than I,” she said.

Anyone with information about Ms Ellis’s death is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppers.com.au